Book Review : Five Point Someone

"Five Point Someone",a novel by Chetan Bhagat exchanged hands yet another time at work over 5 months back. I had heard a lot of "wows, this is great, I did that too" every time a member of my team read that book and religiously passed (or promoted? ) it over to the next. It is beyond my understanding why they didn't pick up a copy of their own from the bookstore on MG Road that have been flaunting a copy of this book on the front racks for months now.

Four months overdue, on one of our customary visits to Crossword Bookstoreon M.G. Road in Bangalore. I recommended this book to Vivek not knowing quite what he would expect. He read the back cover and picked it up. I started reading it that evening. Flipping through the pages, I read out a few lines aloud. Every time I did that he had this reminiscent look on his face with a glimmer of satisfaction that perhaps said "I've been through this." The turning point was the line on insti-rood, Floyd and Vodka. He snatched it from my hands and went onto complete reading the book in one sitting, as most under grads would do. Just so I made myself clear, one sitting in this case meant even while having dinner, trips to the looo and a 4 hr sleep that night eager to finish the rest next morning.

This 300 odd page book starring Ryan, Alok and Hari is a smashing success. It took me 2 more months to start the book all over again. And definitely not one sitting for me. Every time I asked what someone what was so great about the book or what it was about, came the monotonous reply, "It is about an IIT grad about his 4 years at Indian's Premier Technology Institute".

This is partially true. There is much more to thee book that the 4 years at IIT. It is a mockery on the Indian Education system. Be it a premier Institute of India or a third rate Engg. College built ina no-man's land, our system leaves no stone unturned in churning out and recognizing muggers year after year.

This book attacks the mythical equation :

top of the class === smart
under performers === dumb a*s

More importantly this book is about friendships. A friend of mine from College had recently said, "I made a few friends at College and I intend to keep them for life whether you like it or not". Friends made in college are for life!

This book is about survival of the smartest. It is about the transformation of obedient boys coming out of home for the first time getting acquainted with don't-give -a-damn guys like Ryan, getting easily influenced and making a comeback in the last year landing a job and turning into fine young men. Life teaches them a lot more than muggers like Venkat go through!

Written in simple English, Bhagat is a master story-teller. Of course I don't buy the fact that Hari had the guts to sleep with the prof's daughter in broad daylight. Fiction it is. He went a lil overboard but I guess its ok just as we can live with the item numbers in mainstream Cinema for commercial success.

Believe it or not, if you were a top performer, there are times when you are going to hate this book. There are times, when you would think, "OMG, I was so much like Venkat. Shut myself in a room for hours together mugging the 8 hr notes ready to vomit in the tests."It would make you think "There existed a LIFE outside while I was in the company of books." (Just for the record, No , I don't regret what I did back then).

Ryan's character is difficult to identify with but one that everybody fantasises to be. Memories of the adrenaline rush the night before the sem exams, a flurry of activity around the hostel rooms in search of the right photocopies, quarrels over lab practicals and cooking of obsy readings came back...

Surprisingly, normal IIT girls didn't figure in this book. Probably because they were Mech guys or do such guys find better company in insti roof, vodka and Floyd than ..

Overall, the book was entertaining. Guys can draw an instant connection. If you want to the revisit the 4 years of your under grad again, then this is a must-read.
It is actually fun to borrow this book and read. You can then buy a copy of your own. Priced at Rs.99, it is a steal. This book is very difficult for Western readers to relate to but if you want to understand how Indian Education System works, then do read this. On a closing note, don't ask me again how the book is. If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand.

Categories: Categories: booksbooks, five point someone, chetan, bhagat

Art : Tanjore Painting

Thanjavur Painting (or Tanjore Painting as it is widely known today) is a medieval form of art that orginated in Tanjore, a town on the banks of Cauvery, in the 1500's. Most paintings depict Hindu gods and goddesses. A very expensive art, as the colors used in original paintings were natural colors made from vegetables, barks of trees and fruits. Some of the original paintings are preserved to this day in museums. The cost of the paintings are also high because the jewels worn by gods and godesses in the paintings were real precious stones such as Ruby (for red), Diamond (for white), Sapphire (for green) and gold foil used for the throne outline.

I have long wanted to learn this form of painting. Now on a vacation for a month, the longest in 2 years, it seemed like the best time to do. The drawing that I'm doing is shown below in various stages. On completion I will add the real painting as well. The painting that I have started on is a 20*16" one of Lord Krishna (as a child) sitting on a swing. The sketch is drawn on a board (first pic). The board preparation itself takes 2 days. Once you draw the sktech, you start pasting the stones (pic 2). These stones are not real precious stones. Then sticking the gold paper followed by painting colors and framing. I'm learning it from a person who has been doing it for around 10 years now. The craftsmanship that goes into creating these paintings is tremendous. I'm pretty excited about it as I'm doing identical ones simultaneously. One for myself and another one as a gift to mom!

Technical (Java) Interview Experiences and Tips - 2

Numerous calls and e-mails from a consultant persuaded me to take a break in my vacation and come to Bangalore for 2 days to attend an interview. The promise that all the rounds would be completed the same day with an offer given made it all the more lucrative. I should have known better that it was too good to be true. The interview process was scheduled for 2 hours from 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. I had arrived just that morning after a night journey and looked a disaster with no sleep from the previous night.

Nevertheless, we drove to the avenue and I presented myself on time with the laundry list of documents that they had asked for. Thank God, they didn't ask for my parents' birth certificates!
Waited at the reception area to be called inside along with some 50 odd candidates. 11:30. 11:45. Still chatting with Vivek. A guy clad in black presented himself, addressed us and took us up. I still hoped to be out by 1:00 for lunch. After filling a form, the waiting continued upstairs with 25 odd people. No sign of any action. A bunch of referral candidates were whisked away to another building. I had a few referrals but people had warned me against it here as this org didn't work that way.

More waiting. I kept myself entertained with SMSs to Vivek, gazing at the 10 odd clocks depicting times of various places across time zones. It was quite an entertainment as all were showing incorrect times from New York to London to Tokyo to Sydney.

Just I was beginning to get impatient, the black clothed guy that I would call P presented himself again and gave a very attractive offer of who wants to go and have lunch? No one was in the mood. We just wanted to finish it and be done for the day. Discouraged by a lack of response, he muttered, "you should cooperate. You should understand blah blah". So many "shoulds" drove me mad. No apologetic tone. No courtesy. Zilch. That was it. I told him they needed to organize better. It didn't matter whether I got the job or not then. He asked us to reassemble at 2:00 p.m.

Skipped lunch for a lack of place to goto nearby and came back at 1:50 p.m. More waiting. I finally went in at 2:40 p.m. totally exhausted from the 3.5 hour wait. The interview was ok and the interviewer was cooperative. I blacked out and my eyelids were closing but I survived. Lasted 30 mins and I moved to the next round. Little did I know that the next goddamn round would be at 5:35 p.m.

With no lunch no snack and meaningless waiting for 6 hours, I finally emerged at 6:10 p.m. My gut says I wouldn't get the job because I was very aggressive. But I really don't care. If you are curious to know, what was the place I interviewed at, it was IBM.

Today's Tips :

1. Get a good night's sleep before an interview day


2. Plan your travel ahead. If it is a last minute one, negotiate for a better travel deal with the company you are interviewing for. Else postpone the interview to a convenient date. That shows you are not desperate and works well in a services market.


3. Do not take bullshit. If you respect yourself, only then can you expect others to give you one. Don't be inhuman and wait for unreasonably long hours. Plan an alternate solution and suggest you would visit again for the next round. That gives you time to get things in perspective.


4. Check your e-mail and ensure that you have all the documents that they asked for before you leave for the venue


5. To avoid delays at arriving at the venue, make sure you find out where the place is a day in advance


6. If you are waiting for longer hours at the venue, keep yourself refreshed by splashing water and drinking lots of water.


7. If you have information that there are going to be numerous other people taking the interview, carry a book or iPOD to keep you entertained. And ofcourse some snacks to munch.

Was it my "Imagination at Work"?

July 29th was my last day at work. Exactly 75 days at this wonderful place. It is always difficult to leave your first job. But this was my second, so I didn't have the emotional bondage. It was too short a period to have one either.

I admit the transition was difficult and the early days don't bring back very happy memories. But that would have been true at any organization I would have joined. Technology was not their forte and they admitted it.
Too infatuated by technology, it took a while to come to senses and to learn how to balance both. To realize the fact that if one had the potential and the drive to change things for better, it was only a matter of time to be empowered to see those changes. I was beginning to feel that when I had to leave.

When you haven't seen what can go wrong in how an organization functions, you start whining about trivial shortcomings and don't appreciate how good the place is. So I want to take a moment and jot down all the good things that I observed in my short stint here:

1. Recruitment - Just as you can judge a person by the company he keeps, you can judge a company (read: organization) by its HR. If there was single biggest factor that persuaded me internally to join this place, it was the recruitment process. Amazing HR team. 3 round of interviews within 2 days and on the dot. Never did I have to wait for more than 2 mins. When I arrived for the interview once, I was escorted to and fro from the gate. Sure, for security reasons or courtesy. You are free to perceive as you want to, but I was impressed.

2. Between Recruitment and Day 1- Calls from immediate manager and HR to ensure that everything was going per plan and there were 2-3 hiccups my way and all were resolved with NO fuss.

3. Day 1 - I was floored. Same level of hospitality as I had witnessed before. The winning score however was a feedback form that I had to fill in at the end of the day. It had questions like --

Who did you have your lunch with? - Team, Friends, Alone
Did the joining procedure take long ?

Very comforting questions. The thought that someone had actually thought of putting such questions and not mediocre ones copied from somewhere was appreciable. Day 1 can be nightmare with hundreds of forms to be filled up, an intimidating feeling of a new place, judging eyes, the nervousness to be at your best to give a very good first impression and so on...But at end of Day 1, I felt GOOD. None less.
I did not have to grope for answers or lie for any of the above.

Can you believe I had a machine and place to sit within 3 hours? It is a big deal in India.

4. First week - I had to go on a 2 day emergency leave to attend to my hospitalized mom. That was no problem either.


A few things that I loved about the place:

1. Professionalism - No where ever have I seen such an universal display of professionalism. Respect for other's time was so high that no meetings were ever conducted without a request placed atleast 2 weeks in advance. Having said that, it did not mean that you could not have ad hoc meetings if the situation demanded.

2. Transparency - They proved all the rules wrong. I have learnt the hard way to read between the lines in an offer letter or in a financial dealing. Whereas in this case, my suspicious mind tried in vain to find a catch point. There were none. It was all there in BLACK and WHITE.

3. Integrity - Amazing. The rules were the same for everyone. "All animals are equal. Some animals are more equals than the others" principle did not apply. Integrity across departments from HR until Finance and your managers. All read the same rule books, it flowed in their blood, there was no question of mending them.

4. Passion - People drive a company, cattle don't. And passionate people drive a company better. In India where you can easily replace anybody's job, it was good to see a place where people are given due respect at all levels and vice versa. The passion is clearly evident in the tone and every action. It is not just a job. You do it because you love it.

You may say I'm dreaming. But this is for REAL. It is a no-brainer to guess the name of the place I worked at.
I don't know how to put this. But if I ever come back to Bangalore, I wouldn't think for a moment to consider joining this place again. (and this is a BIG DEAL for someone who believes not going back to a place you have quit from).

Respect the TV

...so said Vivek. Confused over what I heard, I asked "what did you say?". With his head fixed in the direction of the TV, he repeated in an emphatic tone, "Respect the TV", indicating that none of us should chat in front of the TV. Wondering what he was watching ? -- multitasking Tour De France and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Haaaaa..so much respect for the idiot box. Do you guys do that?


Do Bloggers suffer burnout?
I think I did. Not so much because of writing but because of reading so many blogs in a day. I started wondering if Blogging was an obsession and if I could stay without it for a few days. I did just fine the last 5 days with no blogging and no checking the stats and without the frenzy of reading tons of sites like a maniac. End of the day my head would spin in a dizzy having read non-stop throughout the day assimilating all the information, making a note of interesting stuff, posting to del.icio.us and I would just come crashing. I was burnt out from the information overload and decided to retreat into a quiet world. It helped and now I'm back with a more organized approach to read and write!

Cold

I'm sick with running nose, cold, sneezing and a handful of tissues! I was just going through my blog archives from 2003 and found this quote.

William Gladstone said "If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated; it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are exhausted, it will calm you".

So true. I had a cup of tea and I feel so much better now. I'm contemplating on taking a month long vacation from blogging. Just contemplating ...

Will U.S come to terms with reality?

It required a 9/11 for U.S to acknowledge that its long term ally was not so "nice" as it projects all the time. When India harped for decades that it was terrorism on our borders along Kashmir and Punjab, they turned a blind eye and continued to support - you know who. Only when your fingers get burnt do you acknowledge at times. After 7/7 there was a good article in The Times of India that said :

India a lab for terror strikes

By Chidanand Rajghatta/TNN

Washington: Has the failure of western intelligence agencies to recognise India as a victim of terrorism and their lack of interest in terrorist modus operandi in India over the past 15 years brought them grief in recent years? It would appear so, going by the action replay of terrorist acts in India that one is now witnessing in various parts of the world.The serial blasts that shook London on Thursday show again that India has been used as a laboratory by terrorists.

The world may forget but Indians wouldn't - the serial bomb blasts of Mumbai in 1993! It was ok then because it was India where hundreds die every month. If you are smart, you know the point I'm driving home. Good articles on the same topic ---

1. Why Do They Hate Us? Not Because of Iraq


2. If It's a Muslim Problem, It Needs a Muslim Solution - By Thomas L. Friedman

How I remember birthdays?

Of late, people are amazed at how I remember dates. I don't use an organizer or any fancy gadget or any website that sends me reminders every morning. Some people find it difficult to remember dates while they can recollect a whole lot of other things very easily such as faces and names. I have a fasciation for dates but I'm very bad at remembering names.
Here's my memory mapping secrets for dates (umm not really):

1. Rule 1: Association
   As a kid, we remember a lot of things and this number wanes gradually as we grow old. The key to remembering newer dates is to map them to what you already know like your friend's and family birthdays. Naturally, the dates I can remember easily are those that fall in the months of January, February, April, May, July and September (family birthdays). It takes an effort to remember the rest.
   
   The first step is to group the dates and remember them in patterns. For instance, Jan 21, April 21, May 6, June 21, July 13 and September 25 come naturally to me. So when I came across dates such as Jan 22, April 24, May 8 or September 23 it was easy to associate.
   
   People who share birthdays or anniversaries are the easiest.If they occur on a National holiday such as August 15th or Jan 26th all the more easier!
   



2. Rule 2: Recency or the last year rule
   Every morning when I wake up, I make it a point to see what date is. It is a mental action item to do it around 7:30 a.m. or just before I go to bed the previous night. I then do a quick mental run to see if the date seems familiar. If I have done something substantial such as wishing someone on their birthday or anniversary last year, I generally remember that by way of what responses to e-mails or calls that I received. Don't ask me how. I just have a vague remeberance. The more frequently I do that, which is successively over the next few years, it becomes a habit. Usually, if I don't remember it in the morning, the likelihood that I would through the rest of the day is very bleak!
   



3. Rule 3: Grouping Dates
   This rule works best to enrol newer dates into your memory. Birthdays of people from a similar profession or friends who are associated in some way to each other are easier to remember. One such group is March 20th to 22nd, July 9th to July 15th, Sept 21 to Sept 25th.
   



4. Rule 4: Day of the week
   This is an offbeat rule which hascome in handy at times. There are events and the day of the week and the month that it occurred the previous year that I remember distinctly. Such dates even if I make an effort I generally fail at it. So if it happened on a Sunday last year, it would be on a Monday this year. This cannot and will not work for long!
   

Despite all this, there are dates that sound quite familiar like july 19th and I can't figure out what it represents. It is probably also worth mentioning that it is selective filtering. Not anything and everything goes in. Either the date or the person associated has to be special in some way (obviously done subconsciously) to get registered.

Technical (Java) Interview Experiences and tips - I

I'm much more composed now than I was 6 hours back. The last post which I decided not to take down speaks volumes about my state of mind then. I wrote that minutes after that grilling 55 min interview.

Just a little background on what's going on. I'm looking out for a job because we are relocating to a new city and I began interviewing with prospective employers today. I went through a similar experience just 3 months back. For whatever reason, this experience is frustrating and teaching me so many lessons. So I decided to hell with anonymity and decided to blog about it here. Some Do's and Dont's. The process of getting a Project Lead job in India involves the following steps :

Precursor

1. Making a resume and I confess I'm not very creative at it.
2. Posting a resume in a job portal or through referrals.
3. Answering to hundreds of e-mails from thousands of consultants within hours of posting the profile.
4. Hundreds of calls come for administrators and network guys if you are looking for a project lead position. Everything is software and IT for consultants. Its their job and they don't give a damn.

Finally when something materializes, REAL interview calls start coming in. The criteria for every company varies. You can judge the kind of organization you are getting into by the way interviews are organized and conducted. Just like they say you can judge a man by the company he keeps, you can judge a company by the HR personnel the company employs.

Every company typically has about 4-5 round of interviews of which atleast 2-3 are technical nature varying in complexity.

What went wrong today?

Interviewee - that's me :

1. preparedness : If you are not prepared, do NOT agree to take an interview. If you do, then only 2 things can happen. Either you try to prove that you are smarter than the interviewer or you end up saying "I don't know" for the answers you know too because you are not confident.

2. Location : The place where I took the interview was just not right. It was in the open with 37 deg C Sun rays right over my head that made my temperature and temper rise.

Otherwise I think I did a good job.

Interviewer:

1. If you ever happen to interview someone, please review the role you are interviewing the person for. Asking the person what each member in "system.out.prinln" does not make any sense. How many times do you really care before writing system.out.println as to what it does?

2. No Googling: Please please do not Google for Java Interview Questions and ask questions from there. People are smart enough to do the same before taking an interview.

3. Ask questions relevant to what is needed to get the job done and what you encounter daily in the project. Ask design and architecture related questions for a project lead and not what is the difference between classes111.zip and classes12.zip.
Test for spontaneity and practical application, not theoretical knowledge.

4. Focus not on you: Your motto is to judge how good the person you are interviewing is. Your motto is NOT to prove that you are better than the person you are interviewing. I'm sure you get more chances and avenues to do that on a different forum.

5. Do NOT test syntax : In this age of Rapid Application Development, asking someone for the syntax of something is the most stupid thing one can do. IDEs do that for you. Use your gray cells to remember design patterns and better stuff.

6. Test the aptitude : Aptitude to be able to judge the right solution and the attitude to get the solutions by any means is what you need to test. Understand that one would not have answers to all the problems and one need not know anything.

7. Area of Expertise : Interview and explore their knowledge on an area of expertise extensively. A little knowledge of everything is not what you need. My interview this afternoons spanned from normalization techniques of databases to textbook definition of joins to Rational Unified Processes to Project Manegemnt tools to Reflection API of Java. What are you trying to judge by interviewing on all such varied topics? Have a focus area and attack that!

8. Problem Solving Approaches : The way a person thinks comes out best when you ask him/ger to solve a problem. I like ThoughtWorks way of interviewing. First they give youa problem to solve and then in the later round, ask you to critique it and improve the solution.

frustrated

Damn damn damn. 55 mins of goddamn technical interview. I'm exhausted. My desire to do some stuff on my own is growing by the day! I mean, seriously, wtf, such an ordeal within 3 months is definitely not welcome.

This blog post would be gone soon. I'm just taking out my frustration. It was goddamn HOT outside and my head is fried
literally!